Learning to drive, again..

Which one is the brake?

For those of you that might not know this, I have a driving licence here in the UK. Unfortunately, I passed my test 7 years ago, and have not driven since. So although I am legally allowed to drive, I am very much not safe to do so. Believe me, you do not want to share the roads with me. I’ve been putting off the process of re-learning to drive because, to be honest, I did not enjoy it all that much the first time round.

Driving is not something that came naturally to me, progress was slow (and expensive) and passing my Theory easily was more of a testament to my ability to revise than to my road knowledge. I did pass my Practical exam first time round, albeit with the maximum number of faults. One more minor fault and I’d have failed. We sat in silence for a minute or so when I’d stopped the car, and the examiner said, rather reluctantly, ‘well, you’ve passed.’ I believe I responded with ‘really, are you sure?!’ and she nodded with pursed lips. After a moment she added: ‘I’d recommend having some more lessons’.

I of course had no intention of doing so. As far as I was concerned, I’d checked a box. I lived in London where everywhere I needed to get to was accessible on foot or by public transport, and I didn’t even own a car. I’d also had miserable experiences with driving instructors at the age of 18.

The first one I’d had would make frequent socially unacceptable comments. One time I moved the gear stick a little too aggressively, and he said “I hope you don’t treat your boyfriend like that.” This was topped only by a driving lesson where he had me drive him to his place of worship, disappeared inside for 15 minutes and then reappeared to resume our lesson. It was like Uber, except the driver pays the customer.

The second instructor I had, to his credit, was fine. A little bored and impatient, and the lesson breaks we took seemed to be more of an opportunity for him to smoke rather than to stretch the legs, but at least he wasn’t a creep.

I started with Driving Instructor Number 3 when I went to uni, and he was verbally rude, swearing at me whenever I made a mistake. So really it’s no wonder I hated driving. I’m surprised I didn’t have to pay to have therapy after paying an instructor to tell me I’m a ****ing idiot.

Despite not needing to drive on a day-to-day basis, there were plenty of times where I was reliant on others for getting somewhere outside of London, and I had it in the back of my mind that I would plan a time to start driving again. I was nervous about finding a new instructor, so I got a recommendation from someone who was in a similar position to me and having to re-learn.

So far, so good. He’s patient, not creepy and very helpful. 10/10.

In lesson 1, I sat in the driver’s side and feared that my ability to adjust the rearview mirror and move my seat closer to the wheel led him to assume that I knew what I was doing.

“Do you think you could just pull off now and start driving?” He asked. “Or would you like a bit more of an introduction?”

I laughed in response.

“Do you know which one is the accelerator?” He asked, to which I replied, as a question, “um, the right one?” (Lucky guess).

Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s slowly coming back to me. I’m not very confident but every lesson feels like progress.

A few minutes into my next lesson, Driving Instructor #4 hops out of the car to peel off the Learner plates. “Almost forgot, we can’t have these on as you have a license.” This worries me, largely because a previous instructor had once reassured me by saying: “Don’t worry if you make a mistake, the other drivers can see that you’re a Learner.” I’ve lost that comfort now. Now I’m just a bad driver.

“Are you afraid of hitting the kerb?” Driving Instructor #4 asks.

“Erm, no, I don’t think so…?”

“Right. It’s just that we’re driving quite far away from it right now.”

I’ve learnt that these questions are somewhat rhetorical. “Did you panic when that car approached?”

I’m not entirely sure this required an answer, given that I had stalled the car when trying to tell it to both stop and go at the same time.

The current focus is on steering. “Three turns of the wheel,” I am told, every time I turn into a road. “Oh. How many was that?”

“Four.”

Right.

“So, it’s three turns of the wheel,” patient Driving Instructor #4 patiently reminds me as we turn into another road. "

“Ah, yes. How many was that?”

“One and a half.”

I like to keep it varied. Maybe next week I’ll have the hang of it.

Loz x